The use of drive-thru services allows individuals to perform transactions conveniently without leaving their vehicles. As a result of this convenience, drive-thru services at banks, ATM's and fast food restaurants are popular worldwide, and drive-thru services at pharmacies are becoming increasingly popular.
In general, drive thru services are provided at a variety of commercial establishments/facilities such as banks, pharmacies, fast food restaurants, and many other establishments as a convenience for customers. Typically, the drive-thru's consist of a customer terminal or station and a teller terminal or station. When a customer pulls his/her vehicle into a drive-thru station, the teller (e.g., pharmacist, cashier, pharmacist assistant, or any other drive thru worker) and customer proceed with a customer transaction which may include, but not be limited to, the exchange of instructions, information, questions, product, money, etc. Once the customer complete his/her transaction with the commercial establishment, the customer pulls his/her vehicle away from the terminal.
Drive thru services enable a customer to complete one or more business transactions with a commercial establishment without ever having to exit his/her vehicle. Such ease, convenience, speed, and efficiency has caused the popularity and use of drive-thru services to continually increase. Unfortunately, the increase use and demand on drive thru services has caused a decrease in through-put, i.e., a decrease in the amount of customers that may be serviced per unit of time. In other words, customer wait times have increased, which increases customer frustration and ultimately lowers customer satisfaction with the commercial establishment's customer service.
Accordingly, there is a continual need for an improved apparatus and method capable of improving the efficiency of the teller and thus the drive thru services provided to the customer.